For the first time in nearly a century, Coca-Cola and its other beverage products won’t be bottled in San Diego.

The beverage company filed a notice with the state saying it will close its 190,000-square-foot production facility off state Route 94 at 47th Street, laying off 92 employees on Nov. 8.

Each year, that facility bottled and canned 7 million cases of Coca-Cola products, including Dasani water. Each case contains 24 bottles.

The plant opened in 1964, at a cost of $1.75 million. At the time, it was the largest one-level Coca-Cola bottling facility west of the Mississippi River. It was able to produce 650 bottles of the soft drink per minute. The previous plant, on El Cajon Boulevard, had been expanded eight times in 30 years. Coca-Cola has been bottled locally since 1919.

Coca-Cola said it will keep the 110,000-square-foot distribution center next to the bottling plant, and its 430 employees. It will handle products from larger bottling facilities in Downey and Los Angeles, said Rebecca Hecksel, director of public affairs and communications for Coca-Cola North America Group.

Yes
60% (263)

No
40% (175)

438 total votes.

“Coca-Cola is a growth company, and we always look to bring greater efficiency and effectiveness to our business,” she said. “As a business decision, the San Diego facility ... doesn’t have an optimal layout. It just made sense to go to L.A.”

Thomas Mullarky, a stock analyst for Morningstar, said the move to centralize bottling in Southern California on its own may not help the company’s bottom line, but it can be replicated elsewhere around the world to make an impact.

“By maintaining their distribution fleets, they’re still able to service all of the restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores they always have,” he said. “It will just be done in an optimal, efficient manner.”

Coca-Cola reported net income of $2.69 billion in the three months ended June 28, down from $2.8 billion in the same quarter of 2012.

In San Diego, Hecksel said the company is doing as much as it can to help the 92 laid-off workers transition, including giving them a severance package.

“We’re treating our employees with as much respect and dignity as we can,” she said. “It’s a really challenging time.”

Hecksel said she didn’t yet know what Coke would do with the bottling facility once it ceases operation.